Energy / Energy-General

• Formula E: The Carbon Neutral Grand Prix

  With great acceleration and no need to change gears, electric cars are proving serious contenders in the high-octane world of motorsports.Electric cars are still more associated with a gentle eco-friendly pootle around town than the tyre-burning thrill of Formula 1. But that could all change next year.FIA, the international motorsports governing body, is planning a 'Formula E', to kick off in 2013. This won't see the gruelling two-hour plus sagas of the petrol-powered Grand Prix. Instead, races will consist of short 15-minute heats, recognising that battery technology doesn't yet have the range of high octane petrol.But when it comes to…

• Never Say Die - Keystone XL Pipeline to Enter U.S. Presidential Election

  Like Lazarus arising from the grave, or a vampire pulling a stake out of his chest, the controversial Keystone LX pipeline, designed to transport Alberta’s crude oil sands output to American Gulf of Mexico, is apparently to become a component in the November U.S. presidential elections.Increasingly evident Republican nominee Mitt Romney declared on 20 April during a speech to the Republican National Committee’s State Chairmen’s National Meeting in Arizona, “I will build that pipeline if I have to myself.” Slyly portraying Obama as a renewable green energy tree-hugger opposed to traditional sources of energy Romney added, “He likes all of…

• Public-Interest State Reinvented in Argentina YPF Expropriation

  The Argentine government’s sudden, hit-and-run expropriation of the majority foreign-owned stake in energy giant Repsol YPF SA is a response to everything from the global economic crisis and particularly how Europe has handled it to the attempt to reinvent a state that puts the public’s immediate interests first.  Spain, of course, is furious. It was Repsol YPF SA’s largest investor and had recently hedged its bets on 23 billion barrels of shale oil and gas discovered in Argentina. However, it also accompanied that revelation with a warning to the government that it would need to reform its energy policy. That…

• New LENR Machine is the Best Yet

  The new leader is Brillouin Energy with a new process named the Hot Tube Boiler.  Sterling Allen at PESN interviewed Brillouin’s Robert W. George II, CEO; and the inventor, Robert Godes, the Chief Technology Officer.  Mr. Allen learned Brillouin has had two significant independent validations of their scientific model and claims. One of those was by Los Alamos National Laboratories. The other was by Dr. Michael McKubre of Stanford Research International (SRI), who subsequently joined their board of advisors.What puts Brillion out in front first is the temperature output.  Brillouin expects the test of the new Hot Tube model at…

• UK Govt. Seismic Fracking Report Certain to Sharpen Debate

  The process of hydraulic fracturing is a mining technique which uses injected fluid to propagate fractures in a rock layer to release hydrocarbon deposits that would otherwise be uncommercial. Developed in the U.S. and first used in 1947 for stimulating of oil and natural gas wells, the use of “fracking” soared in the past decade as thousands of wells have been drilled into the Marcellus Formation, also referred to as the Marcellus Shale, a deposit of marine sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. While initial environmental protests of the technique centered around its possibility of polluting underground water aquifers as…

• Afghanistan Priority: Energy Security

  A lot has happened in Afghanistan in recent days intrinsic more to geopolitics than to Afghanistan itself: Russia-US joint anti-drugs operations are in being put in full swing, Russia has offered up Ulyanovsk for NATO’s Afghan transit needs, and both Beijing and Moscow have been asked to contribute financially to Afghan security forces. Following a two-day NATO-Russia summit that ended on 19 April, Russia agreed to allow NATO’s ISAF troops to use its rail network and air transport running through the town of Ulyanovsk to send supplies in and out of Afghanistan. Specifically, the deal would allow for the opening…

• WestLB is the First Bank to Refuse Finance to Offshore Oil Rigs in the Arctic

  WestLB will not provide finance to any offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, according to a new environmental policy that is understood to be the first of its kind. In an eight-point statement relating to financing offshore drilling, published this week, the German bank says that “the oil rig (or vessel etc.) may not perform any exploration or production activities within the 10°C-isotherm, both at the beginning and throughout the life of the financing.” The 10°C-isotherm is the area where the average temperature for the warmest month is below 10°C.This is the first time a bank has explicitly…

• Make It So - Energy Science Fiction Becoming Science Fact

  It's no secret that Gene Roddenberry's venerable "Star Trek" metaseries has inspired the imagination of millions since it first debuted in 1966. Strange worlds, compelling characters, and more techno-babble than you could shake a stick at have always been hallmarks of the series. But Star Trek has also been noted on many occasions throughout the series for seemingly predicting (or perhaps inspiring) the progression of technology.While we're certainly not cruising the galaxy in starships trying to pick up green women, a lot of Trek tech seems to have not only become commonplace but in some cases even obsolete and antiquated.…

• Gazprom-Vietnam: All Hands on Deck in South China Sea

  A deal struck earlier this month between Russia’s state gas giant, Gazprom, and Vietnam’s state oil and gas group, PetroVietnam, has geopolitical underpinnings aimed at China’s prowess in the South China Sea. The 6 April Gazprom-PetroVietnam deal grants the Russian gas giant two licenses to explore the Moc Tinh and Hai Thach fields in the South China Sea off the Vietnamese continental shelf and gives Gazprom a 49% stake in the fields, which translates into some 55.6 billion of cubic meters of natural gas for Russia.While the fields are in Vietnamese waters, the deal comes as China’s ongoing territorial disputes…

• Iran's Occupation of Persian Gulf Islands Rattles Neighbors

  As Iran struggles to mitigate the economic and political effects of the sanctions imposed on it by the international community over its nuclear activities, Tehran is seeking allies anywhere it can. But a diplomatic spat dating back to Britain’s withdrawal from “east of Suez” has put a diplomatic chill into its relations with countries on the western side of the Persian Gulf, particularly the United Arab Emirates. At issue is Iran’s occupation of the islands of Abu Musa, Tunb al-Sughra (Lesser) and Tunb al-Kubra (Greater), of which only Abu Musa is inhabited. The islets, 12 miles south of the Iranian island…